About

Richard Nielsen: Past Imperfect
By Denise Markonish

“…the past is always tense and the future, perfect.”
– Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2000

“We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.”
– Gore Vidal

The grammatical principle of “past perfect” comes from the Latin plus quam perfectum which translates to “more than perfect.” It denotes a verb used to discuss actions completed in the past. So, what occurs when we realize that this notion of “more than perfect” is, in fact anything but? Writer Zadie Smith’s simultaneous acknowledgement of the tense nature of the …